CD Review: THE WAR OF THE WORLDS soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 09/26/2012
THE WAR OF THE WORLDS soundtrack | ©2012 Intrada Records

Perhaps the finest purveyor of sci-fi and fantasy entertainment during the genre’s boomtown days of the 50’s and 60’s, George Pal’s films were just as distinguished for their epic visuals of proto-Bay destruction as they were for their musical grandeur, none more so than his apocalyptic classics THE WAR OF THE WORLDS and WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE. So it’s fitting that these two scores lead off a terrific Intrada compilation of early Pal-produced soundtracks, making for one of the most old school geek-tastic releases to be mined from the opening of the Paramount mountain. Where many of the era’s sci-fi scores […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE SHADOW soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 09/13/2012
THE SHADOW soundtrack | ©2012 Intrada Records

First heard on the radio in 1930, The Shadow set the tone for the archetypical playboy-cum-superhero, a man of leisure whose real nighttime activity was trading in his tuxedo for an ominous crime-fighting outfit, one that struck fear into the hearts of common thugs and super villains alike. Though The Shadow found popularity every medium from to the airwaves and comic books, it somehow took about sixty-three years for handsome Lamont Cranston and his ugly alter ego to make their big screen debuts. And like such wonderfully entertaining retro box office busts of the time as THE ROCKETEER and THE […]Read On »


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CD Review: TED soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 09/02/2012
TED soundtrack | ©2012 Universal Pictures

Nothing represents cuddly innocence like a child’s teddy bear, an image that brings to ear the honeyed sounds of orchestral happiness. And playing just that is the key to what might be the most brilliantly subversive talking “animal” score of all time, given the beautifully lush stylings of Seth MacFarlane’s pet composer Walter Murphy. In TED, he makes his master’s crude humor all the more hilarious, and emotionally affecting, as if this music was actually accompanying the real, non pot-smoking, slut-screwing deal. As a vet TV composer with such credits as WISEGUY, BUFFY and PROFIT, Murphy’s most prolific, and popular […]Read On »


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CD Review: USED CARS (2,000 edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
USED CARS soundtrack | ©2012 La La Land Records

It’s a movie that’s anything but a lemon, even if the picture got treated like an Edsel upon its initial release. But with the director-writer team of Robert Zemeckis and Ed Gale (I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND) in the drivers’ seats, USED CARS has endured as a cult comedy classic, one whose case of musical buyers’ remorse is now revealed in a limo-quality La La Land release that not only offers Patrick Williams’ funkily energetic score, but its first, puttering (if well-intended) ignition by Ernest Gold.  The idea of getting the composer behind the greatest cinematic demolition derby of all […]Read On »


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CD Review: TOTAL RECALL soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 09/01/2012
TOTAL RECALL soundtrack | ©2012 Madison Gate Music

If an old school score fan visited Rekall, it’s likely their fantasy would be to go back to the days when Jerry Goldsmith plied a roaringly thematic score for Arnie’s trip to Mars. But then, you can’t go home again to that kind of unabashedly melodic action sound. And to be fair, this isn’t your generation’s TOTAL RECALL, a time that Hollywood’s effects capabilities, and musical tastes have long since surpassed, for better and worse. Yet while there’s no surpassing the original film in every category (red cheesiness and all), this revisionist RECALL turns out to be a way more […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN soundtrack | ©2012 Walt Disney Records

For what could be described as the kinder, gentler Disney version of PET SEMATARY, a couple longing for a child bury their wishes in a box, only to have a magical kid pop out to teach them some invaluable life lessons, as opposed to rampaging through the neighborhood. And there’s certainly no reason to fear otherwise in Geoff Zanelli’s sweetly magical score. But while heavily adorned with bells, voices, accordions and unstrung guitars, Zanelli’s deft emotional touch makes the music lyrical as opposed to being cloying. Though an orchestra is there for the necessary handkerchief heartstrings, Zanelli’s approach is mostly […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE BOURNE LEGACY soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 08/31/2012
THE BOURNE LEGACY soundtrack | ©2012 Varese Sarabande Records

James Newton Howard takes the baton from John Powell to run a more straightforward, beat-driven marathon. In much the same way that new writer-director Tony Gilroy has thankfully wiped out Paul Greengrass’ crazy-cam movement, Howard’s keeps the ethnic, thematic rhythms of Powell’s three previous scores to a minimum to make his LEGACY to BOURNE‘s seminal action sound a combo between that composer’s lean, mean fighting machine and his own breathless, powerhouse suspense for another guy on the run he scored called THE FUGITIVE. That Oscar nominated touch is a bit more hipped up here, and with significantly less orchestra, which […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE EXPENDABLES 2 soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
THE EXPENDABLES 2 soundtrack | ©2012 Silva Screen Records

At this point, Brian Tyler has been on target at scoring so many testosterone fiestas that one feels he’d be just as capable of trading in his keyboard for an Uzi. But until Tyler actually becomes a trigger-happy merc, muscle music fans can happily get their freak on for the composer’s return to The Team. THE EXPENDABLES 2 is all happily what they’d expect, with urgently dire blasts of rhythm and building orchestras, relentlessly climbing towards those big explosions of flame and flying insta-corpses. If the last movie’s problem was that absolute no character was actually expendable, Tyler’s graver, even […]Read On »


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CD Review: ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 / DARK STAR soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 08/12/2012
ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 soundtrack | ©2012 Buysoundtrax Records

Buysoundtrax has had varied luck when re-performing cult score favorites, especially ones done with then state-of-the-art keyboards like THE BOUNTY  and LEGEND. So if you’re attempting to replicate such a distinctive sound, who better to get then a composer who helped create an unrepeatable sound in the first place? That’s the reason why Alan Howarth, the musician best know for being “in association” with John Carpenter on such genre favorites as HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH and PRINCE OF DARKNESS (the real deals of which are available through Buysoundtrax’s site on Howarth’s AHI label) has had the best success […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 08/11/2012
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN soundtrack | ©2012 Sony Classical

Few movies set off the spider-sense like thoroughly unnecessary, or ill-funded pictures that have been made to cling onto a franchise, a la the dreadful Roger Corman FANTASTIC FOUR movie that’s thankfully never seen the light of day beyond bootleg VHS sellers at comic conventions. But even more problematic is when a huge-budgeted saga you would’ve liked to have seen continue with the original players (even if it had a lackluster last chapter) has broken down because of script issues and contract negotiations. With this being said, for a movie that has no real right to exist if those calamities […]Read On »


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